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Cryogenic closed-cycle linear engine integration for cold energy recovery in fuel cell trucks
Full text linkThis study investigated the integration of a Cryogenic Closed-cycle Free-piston Linear Joule Engine Generator (CCFLJEG) into a 100-kW hydrogen fuel cell truck to recover and convert cryogenic hydrogen cold energy into electricity. At 100% load and a hydrogen flow rate of 1.4 g/s, the CCFLJEG produced up to 2.9 kW of additional electrical power. Approximately 27% of the liquid hydrogen (LH2) regasification enthalpy was directly absorbed by helium in the cold heat exchanger, while a further 48.9% was indirectly utilised by enhancing hot-side energy recovery, giving an overall cold-energy utilisation of 76.2%. The system reduced annual energy demand from 131.04 MWh to 124.25 MWh (5.2% decrease), equivalent to a hydrogen saving of 333.3 kg. These results demonstrate that coupling CCFLJEG with fuel cell trucks provides an efficient pathway for exploiting cryogenic exergy while improving vehicle-scale energy efficiency. Economic analysis indicated that, when powered by green liquid hydrogen, the system achieved a net present value (NPV) of £23,355 and a payback time (PBT) of 0.7 years. With grey hydrogen, the PBT remained favourable at 1.4 years. Sensitivity analysis identified hydrogen purchase price as the most influential factor affecting NPV, while the capital cost of the CCFLJEG had the strongest influence on PBT. The findings indicated a positive outlook on the technical and economic viability of integrating CCFLJEG in fuel cell trucks, suggesting that it could offer a promising approach to improving energy efficiency and reducing hydrogen consumption in heavy-duty transport applications
Making New Faith In/Visible. Religious Movements and Urban Space
Full text linkThe visibility – and invisibility – of religious movements has been an important aspect in different fields of research, however not been considered systematically in studies on the reciprocal formation of religion and urbanity. This article explores how new religious groups in Europe, South and Southeast Asia make themselves or are made in/visible in towns and cities. It brings together sociological, historical and cultural studies perspectives.Case studies – spanning from Antiquity to our time – allow overall observations about the modes of appropriating urban space, about visibility as premise of social interaction and the perception of difference, about strategies employed to display or hide religious mindsets, and about the political conditions of religious change. These observations confirm theoretical concepts regarding the interrelatedness of visibility and invisibility and the character of in/visibility as a relational phenomenon. In particular, the observations about various cases show that in/visibility generally depends on multifarious factors: first and foremost, the individual interests of religious groups in becoming visible, in addition to political circumstances and even the particular cityscape. At the same time, these case studies stress the fact that visibility can be conveyed in many ways, that it is not necessarily permanent, and that it can quickly increase or diminish
3D particle aggregation in consolidated clay systems: Insights from phase-contrast nano-holo-tomography
No full textThe microstructural arrangement of clay platelets governs their macroscopic properties, yet 3D observations at the particle scale remain limited. This study employs radiation-based X-ray phase-contrast nano-holo-tomography (nano-CT) to achieve an unprecedented three-dimensional (3D) characterisation of clay particle fabric in saturated kaolin clay samples subjected to one-dimensional (1D) compression. Two samples were prepared with acidic (pH = 4.1) and alkaline (pH = 9.1) pore fluids to examine the influence of electrochemical conditions on the association of clay particle. Phase-contrast nano-CT resolves individual kaolin platelets and their spatial arrangement, enabling quantitative analysis of fabric. Autocorrelation function analyses are used to study the alignment of a macroscopically isotropic, yet locally anisotropic structure for the acidic sample, where the edge-to-face (EF) associations of stacks of particles (i.e., aggregates) dominate. In contrast, the alkaline sample exhibits a highly anisotropic, face-to-face (FF) aligned aggregate configuration. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of clay fabric characterisation and highlight the potential of non-destructive synchrotron X-ray 3D nano-imaging techniques for advancing clayey materials characterisation
Challenges and opportunities for social work practice research in addressing epistemic injustice
Full text linkThis article discusses the challenges and opportunities of social work practice research in promoting epistemic equality and contributing to the democratic development of knowledge in social work, and it challenges the well-established regimes of truth. The authors reflect on the dilemmas that have arisen from their own practice and consider how they can relate to these issues as practice researchers
Ocean Bottom Seismometers Provide Direct Measurements of Pulsed‐Structure and Turbulence of Turbidity Currents Overspilling From a Submarine Channel
Full text linkPlain Language Summary: Turbidity currents are seabed avalanches that transport sediment, carbon, and heat from the continental margins into the deep ocean. As these currents move through submarine channels, part of the sediment‐rich flow can spill over the channel margins onto the surrounding levees. This “overspill” builds channel‐levee complexes, which are a key building block of submarine fans, the largest sedimentary bodies on Earth. Overspill may also influence turbulent mixing and ventilation near submarine channels, but how turbidity currents spill onto levees and interact with abyssal waters remains poorly constrained due to the lack of direct observations. Here we show that overspill can be monitored using ocean‐bottom geophones and hydrophones on channel levees, which recorded subtle vibrations and acoustic signals as sediment‐laden overspill passed over them. Using this approach, we captured overspill during an exceptionally large turbidity current in 2020 in the Congo Channel, and documented its structure and turbulence intensity. Overspill persisted for 3 weeks and comprised many short, repeated pulses that generated extremely strong turbulence, among the highest levels recorded at >4 km depth. This prolonged overspill behavior provides an important yet previously overlooked source of deep‐ocean mixing, and helps explain how levees grow and how ancient turbidites are built
Theory-informed neural networks for particle physics
Full text linkWe present a theory-informed reinforcement-learning framework that recasts the combinatorial assignment of final-state particles in hadron collider events as a Markov decision process. A transformer-based deep Q-network, rewarded at each step by the logarithmic change in the magnitude of the tree-level matrix element, learns to map final-state particles to partons. Because the reward derives solely from first-principles theory, the resulting policy is label-free and fully interpretable, allowing every particle to be traced to a definite partonic origin. The method is validated on event reconstruction for tt¯, tt¯W, and tt¯tt¯ processes at the large hadron collider. At this stage the method is tested on parton-level data only, with tests using momentum smearing used as a proxy for a full simulation. The method maintains robust performance across all processes, demonstrating its scaling with increasing combinatorial complexity. We demonstrate how this method can be used to build a theory-informed classifier for effective discrimination of longitudinal W+W− pairs, and show that we can construct theory-informed anomaly-detection tools using background process matrix elements. Building on theoretical calculations, this method offers a transparent alternative to black-box classifiers. Being built on the matrix element, the classification and anomaly scores naturally respect all physical symmetries and are much less susceptible to the implicit biases common to other methods. Thus, it provides a framework for precision measurements, hypothesis testing, and anomaly searches at the high-luminosity LHC
Avian cecal microbiome response and resilience to Newcastle disease are dictated by breed background
Full text linkA wide range of viral infections threaten the long-term sustainability of poultry production. Newcastle disease (ND), caused by Newcastle disease virus (NDV), is endemic in most Asian countries, including Pakistan, causing 50%–100% mortality in young and mature chickens. Some local chicken breeds show resistance to certain diseases and have greater survival probability. The chicken gut microbiome is linked to immune response against infections and to production performance parameters. The present study aims to comprehend disease resistance patterns in multiple chicken breeds with respect to gut microbial communities. Day-old Naked Neck, Black Australorp, Rhode Island Red, white layer, and broiler chicks were raised on an antibiotic-free diet in a semi-controlled setup. Vaccinated and non-vaccinated birds were challenged with NDV. Disease onset was delayed in breeds other than broilers, in which disease symptoms appeared at day 3 post-challenge with maximum severity and mortality. Other breeds, irrespective of vaccination, survived through the challenge period. Naked Neck showed the least variation in clinical features and growth parameters. A lower diversity in broiler groups with a significant decrease after NDV challenge was revealed by 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing of cecal DNA. Furthermore, broiler cecal core microbiome membership was found to be more variable than other breeds. Moreover, differentially abundant genera were observed across treatment groups and breeds with a similar effect on the predicted metabolic pathways, indicating varied energy metabolism responses. Shotgun metagenomics revealed a higher abundance of functional genes, including antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes, stress genes, virulence genes, and amino acid degradation genes in the broiler NDV-infected group compared to the control group. The gut microbiota in chickens affects immunity to infections, health, and productivity. Compared to broilers, local chicken breeds, specifically Naked Neck, are found to have high immune competence in resisting ND while maintaining most performance metrics. Broilers show lower alpha diversity with an unstable core microbiome. Therefore, stable core microbiome maintenance may help the birds cope with the viral infection. The results support the farming of resistant chicken breeds over broilers to reduce production losses from NDV outbreaks
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